A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device having a plurality of identical sets of reels with gaming symbols, and more particularly to a slot gaming device which provides a base or primary game with a plurality of simultaneously playable identical sets of reels with gaming symbols.
Gaming machines currently exist with mechanical or video reels having symbols thereon. In general, a player is awarded one or more credits in a slot gaming machine when one or more randomly generated symbols or combination of symbols appear on a payline. Known gaming devices also awards credits for combinations of scattered symbols.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement provided by gaming machines, gaming device manufacturers constantly strive to provide players with new types of gaming machines that attract players and keep players entertained. One proven way manufacturers use to make their gaming machines more popular is to increase the number and variety of winning combinations and provide more opportunities for the player to win. Providing more variety and opportunities holds the player""s interest for a longer time and also enables the manufacturer to have a wider range of payouts for the winning combinations.
To increase the number and variety of winning combinations, manufacturers have increased the number of paylines. Paylines are predetermined arrays in the set of reels where the gaming machine evaluates whether a predetermined combination of symbols occurred. A payline may consist of any number or configurations of positions of gaming symbols. For example, a payline in a set of reels can consist of a horizontal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a diagonal line of gaming symbols along the reels, or a line overlapping several rows along the reels. It is well known to provide gaming machines with multiple paylines.
It should also be appreciated that gaming machines have become rather complex in comparison to the conventional three reel machines. Currently, many slot machines have a display with a set of five reels with three gaming symbols visible on each reel. This results in a visible set of gaming symbols in a three by five configuration. The majority of five reel slot machines have nine paylines, although twelve, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five payline games are becoming more common. Slot machines may also utilize more than five reels and/or more than three visible gaming symbols on each reel, such as a ten reel configuration with ten visible gaming symbols on each reel. Such a slot machine may have a large number of potential paylines on a singular set of reels. With the increased complexity of the number and the positioning of the paylines on a singular set of reels, it becomes increasingly unwieldy for the gaming software to evaluate a winning combination or combinations of gaming symbols. At some point, adding variety yields diminished returns because of increased complexity. Multiple winning combinations may also become too complex for the player (i.e., a player may win after a given spin of the reels and find it difficult to determine how, where or why the player has won).
Current gaming machines also provide secondary or bonus games in addition to primary games. These secondary or bonus games are generally different from the primary game. The secondary or bonus games are played separately from the primary game. For instance, secondary or bonus games may be evaluated with a different sets of predetermined combinations of the gaming symbols and/or different paylines. Bonus games may also be completely different games.
One known game which provides a variety of winning combinations which are readily understandable to players is International Game Technology""s TOTEM POLE(trademark) game which enables a player to play three different games on one gaming machine at the same time. The TOTEM POLE(trademark) game has the following three separate games on three different sets of reels: RED, WHITE and BLUE(trademark) game; DOUBLE DIAMOND(trademark) game; and FIVE TIMES PAY(trademark) game. The RED, WHITE and BLUE(trademark) game pays a jackpot when the red xe2x80x9c7xe2x80x9d symbol, the white xe2x80x9c7xe2x80x9d symbol and the blue xe2x80x9c7xe2x80x9d symbol appear on a payline. The DOUBLE DIAMOND(trademark) game utilizes the DOUBLE DIAMOND(trademark) symbol as a wildcard. If one DOUBLE DIAMOND(trademark) symbol lands on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays double the original award associated with the winning combination. If two DOUBLE DIAMOND(trademark) symbols lands on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays four times the original award associated with the winning combination. The FIVE TIMES PAY(trademark) game pays five times the original award of a winning combination when the FIVE TIMES PAY(trademark) symbol appears in the combination on a payline. If two FIVE TIMES PAY(trademark) symbols appear on a payline in a winning combination, the game pays twenty-five times the original award associated with the winning combination. If the FIVE TIMES PAY(trademark) symbol appears in each position on the payline and the player played the maximum bet, the player wins the highest award associated with that game.
The TOTEM POLE(trademark) game also includes a jackpot. If the TOTEM POLE(trademark) symbol appears on each reel on each of the three paylines (i.e., the payline in each game) the player wins a jackpot if the player bets the maximum bet of six coins. The game thus has three paylines. The player may bet two coins on each payline. This game also allows the player to bet (a) one or two coins on the payline in the first game; (b) two coins on the payline in the first game and one or two coins on the payline in the second game; and (c) two coins on the payline in the first game, two coins on the payline in the second game, and one or two coins on the payline in the third game.
To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide new gaming machines with a base or primary game whereby players can easily recognize winning combinations of gaming symbols on a multitude of paylines. It is also desirable to reduce the complexity of gaming software needed to evaluate winning combinations on multiple paylines.
The present invention provides a gaming device having a plurality of identical sets of reels for a base or primary game wherein the player places wagers on a number of paylines on the multiple sets of reels. The gaming device simultaneously activates or spins the reels in each of the plurality of sets of reels. The gaming device evaluates each payline the player has wagered on for a predetermined gaming symbol or combination of gaming symbols and awards the player credits (if any) depending on the amount wagered and the value associated with that particular winning gaming symbol or combination of gaming symbols on each set of reels. Because the sets of reels are identical, the gaming software is less complex and the player can readily determine how, where and why the player has won.
One embodiment of the present invention provides a gaming device wherein the player plays a video slot gaming machine. The gaming device video screen displays three identical sets of virtual gaming reels. Each set of reels consists of five virtual gaming reels with three virtual visible gaming symbols displayed on each reel. This embodiment of the invention has nine paylines associated with each set of virtual gaming reels. Thus, in one standard game, there are twenty-seven total paylines available to a player.
In this embodiment of the invention, the player chooses the number and location of the paylines to wager on. The player picks from a plurality of paylines from the three identical sets of virtual gaming reels in a conventional manner. The player also chooses the number of credits to wager on each payline in a conventional manner. Upon initiation of game play, all three sets of virtual gaming reels simultaneously spin. In one embodiment, this may appear to the player that the player is playing three separate slot gaming devices. All three sets of virtual gaming reels display randomly determined gaming symbols. The gaming device evaluates each payline the player has wagered on for a predetermined winning gaming symbol or winning combinations of gaming symbols. The gaming device software thus evaluates nine paylines for each set of gaming reels and repeats the evaluation for each set of reels. The gaming device software thus evaluates a total of twenty-seven paylines in this embodiment of the present invention. The player is awarded credits utilizing the value associated with the predetermined symbols or combinations of gaming symbols and the number of winning symbols or combinations on the paylines which the player has wagered on and the amount wagered by the player.
In one embodiment, each coin bet triggers at least one payline. For example, one coin can be bet on all nine paylines in the first set of reels. If an additional coin is wagered, the next coin bet is placed on the tenth line or the first line in the second set of reels. Similarly, a bet of the nineteenth coin is a bet on a payline in the third set of reels. Alternatively, the player can initiate a wager on each payline individually. In other words, the player can bet any amount of coins on any of the twenty-seven paylines, up to a certain maximum number of coins on each payline. Thus, in one embodiment, the player may wager five coins on each of the twenty-seven paylines or 135 coins for the game.
It is therefore an advantage of the present invention to provide a gaming device having multiple identical sets of reels.
A further advantage of the present invention to provide a gaming device which enables a player to play multiple paylines in a primary slot game where the player can distinguish predetermined winning combinations in easily recognized paylines.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed disclosure, taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like parts, elements, components, steps and processes.